Faculty Events

Friends:

I am privileged to attend many faculty events during the year.
Some of these are faculty groups; others are special lectures and presentations.

A month ago I was happy to be invited to attend the lectures of Drs. Mary Moschella, Fred Smith and Shaun Casey as they were Promoted to Full Professors at Wesley. I was able to attend two of the lectures. Dr. Smith really gets going, really ‘wound up,’ when he speaks on Urban Ministry. I always find his words inspirational and today was no exception. ‘We need to analyze the context’ is one of his major points that I need to hear.

Since I am a Virtue Ethicist, I always like to hear about the virtues. I have not heard a talk on joy for a long time. In her “Toward a Pastoral Theology of Joy” Dr. Moschella was speaking my language. Her talk was the keynote for a year-long project. She believes that there is little work on joy in pastoral ministry [much more on the theology of suffering]. I look forward to her ‘from the ground up’ study of this virtue.

While I had to leave before Dr. Shaun Casey’s presentation, I have read his recent book on the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon election and the role of religion–which has received very positive reviews. I am hoping to get a copy of his presentation that evening!

Peace,
John